Nobody is immune from illness or temporary disability. This means that the state’s task is to provide social support to a person in case of temporary disability in life and work, that is, when the person himself or his child falls ill, during short-term treatment, during childbirth, or when he is left without work. These days, a draft law concerning this issue is being discussed in the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis.

In particular, the draft law “On state social insurance” was considered at the next meeting of the PDPU faction.

The renewed Constitution stipulates that everyone has the right to social protection in case of losing the ability to work or being left without work. Despite this, some problems are observed.

For example, maternity pay or benefits for temporary disability (illness) are an excessive financial burden for employers, so they are non-paid in the private sector. To avoid unnecessary payments, employers have been more frequently not hiring women, particularly pregnant women, or firing them.

Studies have shown that some enterprises do not make these payments at all. In particular, if 15 out of 25 enterprises, that is, 60 percent, did not pay maternity or sickness benefits, 12 enterprises did not pay them.

According to the Presidential Decree of June 25, 2022, the Social Protection Fund was created, and those working in the private sector are covered by the minimum amount (2.5 million UZS) of maternity pay for female employees. Since the employer bears the remaining part, this system is unattractive for entrepreneurs.

For example, with an average salary of 2.3 million UZS, the amount of maternity is 7 million UZS. Of these, 2.6 million UZS are covered by the Fund, and employers must cover the remaining 4.5 million UZS. However, these rights are not provided for the majority of women. The results of 2023 showed that if the number of births is 962 thousand, of them only 17 percent, that is 168 thousand women, were issued maternity leaves, of which only 16 thousand women were covered by the maternity pay at the expense of the Fund.

The faction members noted that eliminating such problems in the social security system is necessary. They also considered it advisable to take measures in cases of enterprise dismissals in a crisis or forced dismissals.

Meanwhile, in accordance with the Labor Code, when terminating an employment contract at the employer’s initiative, the employer pays severance pay in the amount of onefold salary. However, when enterprises in a financial crisis do not pay severance pay, employees are left without income while looking for another job.

It was emphasized that the rules related to determining the types of benefits to be paid under the proposed state social insurance and the implementation of population insurance by the Social Insurance Fund strengthen the social protection of citizens. Based on this, the deputies conceptually supported the draft law in the first reading.